Illustrative image.
On July 22, the artillery of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) shelled several positions of al-Qaeda-affiliated Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in the northwestern Syria region of Greater Idlib.
A militant of the terrorist group was killed and several others were wounded near the town of Kafr Taal in the western Aleppo countryside. The slain militant, identified as Hussein Ahmed al-Masry or “Abu Ahmed Takad,” was reportedly a member of the group’s elite Omar bin Al-Khattab Brigade.
Syrian pro-government news sources shared video footage of the deadly artillery strikes, which were corrected using a small reconnaissance drone.
The strikes were likely carried out in response to recent violations of the ceasefire in Greater Idlib, which was brokered by Russia and Turkey more than three years ago.
HTS and its allies escalated their attacks this year, undermining the already fragile ceasefire. The escalation is thought to be an attempt to sabotage the Turkish-Syrian normalization talks which are sponsored by both Russia and Iran. The militants fear that an agreement between Ankara and Damascus could lead to a Turkish withdrawal from the region. This would leave the door open for the SAA to resume ground operations there.
This escalation is being met with a serious response from the SAA and its allies. Earlier this month, the army destroyed a howitzer in the southern Idlib countryside and shot down three armed drones over the western Aleppo countryside after a series of attacks that targeted government-held villages and towns around Greater Idlib.
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